A Dual Christmas Tale
by Icefriend
Summary: Two level fives, two confessions, two couples, two dates, and two tiny Santa costumes. It's Christmas time in Academy City and two unexpected new couples will be born and experience their first Christmas dates. Oneshot. Touma/Misaki Misaka/Thor.


**Author's Note:** I really shouldn't have written this because I have two ongoing fics already, but I've always wanted to write a Christmas fic and I've been dying to write these two pairings since Misaki and Thor were introduced. So I figure it's fine as long as it's a one shot. Enjoy!

* * *

Christmas is a time of magic. A time of year when people come together to give each other gifts and celebrate their love for one another. All around the world people come together to celebrate Christmas, even those who do not believe in Christ, such was the power of this holiday.

Our story today is the story of the gatherings of two pairs of lovers, finally coming together on this day of miracles.

It was Christmas time in Academy City and the town had undergone a huge change. Christmas trees had been raised everywhere, lights hung from every apartment building and even most businesses and schools, and mistletoe hung in the hallways in every building but kindergartens. Espers had been hired to make snow to cover the city. None of the students knew why Academy City, which was located in japan, was so involved in the Christmas festival which was mainly a western tradition, but rumours abounded. The urban legend websites were filled with them which ranged from 'the city wants to study the effects that festivals have on espers' to 'it's a secret plan to kidnap espers and replace them with clones while everybody is focused on the festival'. The truth was both more bizarre and less. Aliester Crowley the General Superintendent of Academy City, the shadowy puppet master who played with the strings of the entire world, slowly but surely bringing it towards some goal only he knew about... just happened to really like Christmas.

It was in this wintery wonderland brought about by the General Superintendent where two girls sat opening two boxes in a dormitory room. These were not normal girls but rather the two crowning achievements of Tokiwadai middle school: the number 3 and 5 level fives, Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki. The two of them opened the boxes with matching smiles but upon seeing the contents of the boxes one of the smiles got deeper while the other instantly changed to a blush that covered her entire body.

"What the hell is this!?" Misaka yelled at the top of her lungs. In her hands was a female Santa costume. A _tiny _female Santa costume. _Very_ tiny.

"Hmm?" Shokuhou replied with a fake questioning smile on her face. "It's the Santa costume I ordered for you of course. The one you asked me to order so that your roommate wouldn't see."

"Don't give me that! The one I wanted was at least twice this length!" The Santa costume in Misaka's hands was so small she knew without trying it on that it would barely stretch enough to cover her, ahem, private regions.

"Don't be so naive Misaka-san." Shokuhou replied, smiling for real now. "This kind of thing is necessary to win the heart of the man you want."

"This kind of thing isn't necessary!" Misaka shouted back.

Shokuhou let out a huge and exasperated sigh and looked at Misaka with pity "Poor Misaka, I promise to visit you when you end up old and alone okay?" Half way through her look of pity changed to a smile as if she couldn't hold in her laughter. Misaka didn't reply, merely looked at the costume in her hands and turned even redder. Shokuhou crawled up to her and whispered in her ear "How will you know until you try it on Mi-sa-ka-san?"

A few minutes later and with the occasional prodding by Shokuhou the two of them had changed into the costumes. Misaka had been right about the length. The thin white line of fluff at the top of her costume barely went over her bra, and the skirt which puffed out from her hips downwards didn't even cover her shorts. She knew though that without them the slightest bend or bit of wind would reveal her panties for all the world to see. She was used to wearing a short skirt but this was far too much. The only other piece of clothing it came with was a Santa hat.

"Misaka-san you can't wear shorts like that with this costume." Shokuhou commented. Misaka looked at her and saw that while the costume looked promiscuous on her it was down right scandalous on Shokuhou. It covered even less than Misaka's did, only reaching half way up her breasts and exposing the rest. If the dorm supervisor saw Shokuhou wearing this outfit Misaka wouldn't be surprised if she was instantly expelled.

"I'm not wearing it at all." Misaka said. "I'd freeze to death in this." It was the middle of winter and very cold outside, if not in the heated dormitories of Tokiwadai.

"I think you'll be fine if you keep blushing like that." Shokuhou quipped.

Misaka quivered with indignation and shook her head "There's no way I'm wearing this." She said. She reached down to pull off the costume but Shokuhou stopped her with a gesture. Then with an exaggerated sigh she pulled a box out from under her bed and from there procured several other pieces of red clothing. She handed three of these to Misaka, two red knee high socks, and one red mini jacket.

Misaka pulled the additional clothing on and examined herself in the mirror. The costume was still risky but the additional items of clothing made it slightly more bearable. The mini jacket didn't cover her breasts but she didn't really have anything to cover anyways, and at least now there was much less of her skin showing. Of course there was still no chance that she was going to wear this on her date today. The thought of that was far too embarrassing to bear.

"Great now it's time for our dates!" Shokuhou yelled all of a sudden. Misaka turned around in shock to see Shokuhou grinning at her. Shokuhou had pulled on the same kind of knee high socks but instead of the mini jacket she was wearing two elbow length red fingerless gloves that ended in white fluff like the costume did.

Misaka noticed something was off immediately and glanced around to see that her clothing had vanished. "What the hell did you-"

"Do you think you're the only person with a teleporter follower?" Shokuhou said with a mischievous smile.

Sparks shot out of Misaka's head as she yelled "Give them back!"

"No." Shokuhou cheerfully replied. Misaka started to walk threateningly towards who but stopped when she suddenly felt a feminine hand on her hip. By the time she'd finished jumping in surprise and turning around the figure was gone, taking with her Misaka's shorts.

"What the!?" She yelled. "Just what are you playing at?" She demanded.

"You'd better hurry up Misaka or you're going to be late for your date."

"Wha- wha- the dates not for an hour." Misaka insisted.

"I rescheduled~" Shokuhou said with a silly pose. "You should hurry up, I told him that if you're not there in five minutes that you don't want to go~"

"Wha- wha-"

"Have a nice date Misaka-san! He'll be waiting for you at the entrance!" Shokuhou said as she pushed Misaka out of the door. Misaka was so astonished that she didn't even struggle, in fact she didn't even think to until the door was already shut behind her.

Then the whispers began. Misaka glanced around to see two girls glancing at her and whispering to each other. Abruptly she realized what she was wearing and took off at a run. A small part of her mind processed what Shokuhou had said and guided her panicked running to the exit.

On the way over there she saw her salvation, a large winter coat made for an adult. It would cover her at least to her knees. She muttered an apology as she pulled on the coat, promising herself that she would return it right when she got back.

She ran out the door and directly into a man with long golden hair and large blue eyes. Her date. Thor.

Of course this is not the start of our Christmas story. No for the real beginning of our story we will have to go back a few days, to the day when a certain unlucky high school student received a typical piece of bad news that would eventually lead to one of the greatest developments of his young life.

* x *

Perhaps the place most covered by the Christmas decorations were the schools. Every school had it's own tree, and the decorations were far more extravagant than everywhere else in the city. One decoration in particular had the students all across the city particularly concerned. The mistletoe. As if a it was a deliberate attempt to make the students panic as they approached the holiday mistletoe had been hung everywhere to the delight of the couples and the distress of the single students.

Of course there was no law stating that one _had_ to share a kiss whenever they passed under the mistletoe but that didn't stop students from turning red whenever they passed under one with their crush beside them or passing them. Often the students were too embarrassed to notice that their crush was also looking away in embarrassment thinking the same thought that they were.

This heaven that was also a hell is where our story truly begins.

It was the final day of school before the holidays and Kamijou Touma was walking down the hall of his school towards his classroom, carrying in his hand the bread he had just purchased from the cafeteria. Beside him walked Himegami who out of nowhere had decided to come with him to buy lunch despite having always made her own before today. "I something wrong Himegami?" He asked in concern.

"N- no why do you ask?" She choked out.

"You keep tensing up when we walk down the hallways." Touma replied. The truth, that she kept hoping for something to happen every time they passed under a mistletoe, never even occurred to him.

Together they passed under the final mistletoe on their way back to class and Himegami gave him a glare that was half disappointment and half anger. With that she rushed into the classroom ahead of him, leaving him scratching his head in bewilderment. He followed close behind her but she was already eating her lunch with her head down and he got the feeling she didn't want him to approach her. Of course she did, and was hoping that her 'sad' actions would make him approach her to find out what was wrong, but Kamijou Touma has never been somebody who understood women's hearts.

He sat down at his own desk alone and pulled out his phone to check a text message he had gotten on his way back from the cafeteria. It was from his father and he knew without opening it that it contained some bad news about his coming trip. He was planning on going home for the holidays to spend time with his family, and as absolutely no bad news had come about it so far he just knew that soon his bad luck was going to kick in and not let him go. There was no way his misfortune would allow him to have a normal holiday with his family.

His intuition was vindicated a second later when he opened the text to see that he was right. The trip was canceled. Something very important had come up for his fathers work and he would be gone for a month. His mother was going with him, her expenses entirely paid for by the company.

"Such Misfortune." He said. Then he opened his bread and began eating it with a sullen expression. He had been looking forward to the trip even if he had been expecting it to fall through. Now he had nothing to do for two weeks, since all his classmates were leaving. Even Index had left just this morning, off to Europe guide some sort of magic ritual that could only be done on Christmas. He sighed and resigned himself to a boring Christmas alone.

The rest of the day passed quickly, as all the students excitedly talked about their plans for the holidays. Kamijou wished everybody well, and left the school thinking that at least tonight he would get to sleep in his own bed for once.

"Kamijou-chan!" A very happy and bubbly voice called out to him as he was about halfway home. He turned and to his surprise saw Shokuhou Misaki rushing over to him with a huge smile on her face. He had first met Shokuhou during the Daihaseisai, she was apparently a friend of Misaka Mikoto although Misaka hadn't seemed very happy to see each other. Since then he had run into her coincidentally a lot and one or the other had casually struck up a conversation. Now they were close enough that he considered her a friend. He was completely unaware that all the times he had run into her were not coincidental at all but in fact deliberately planned out by her, to the extent of having his daily route home plotted out and rushing out to meet him when her school closed.

"Hey Shokuhou-san." He easily replied. His heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw her smile at him. "What's that?" He asked as he pointed to the envelope she was holding in her hands.

A look of determination crossed her face and she suddenly thrust out the envelope at him shouting "I like you! Please go out with me!"

For a long moment all Kamijou could do was stare at her dumbfounded. Kamijou Touma was a man with many women in love with him, but he himself was unaware of this fact. In his mind the possibility of a girl confessing to him was just about zero, and he had always assumed his bad luck kept anything from happening to him in the romantic department of life.

Now a girl he had several times noticed was very beautiful had confessed to him out of the blue. He was struck speechless, it was all he could do to take the letter from Shokuhou's hands and begin to read it.

_Dear Kamijou Touma_

_I Shokuhou Misaki am in love with you. I have been since the time we first met. I love your spiky black hair, your heroic and giving spirit, and above all I love having somebody around me whose mind I cannot simply_ _read and take over. You are the first boy I have been able to have real interactions with since I came to Academy City. That is not to say I love you merely for your ability, I love you for you. If anybody else had your ability I would find them an annoyance, but you make me glad everyday to have somebody I can view as an equal._

_I want you to be my boyfriend. I want to go on dates with you, to the movies, to dinner, I want to have my first kiss with you. I hope beyond anything else that you have the same feelings for me._

_Love Shokuhou Misaki._

He surprised himself when he without a pause replied "I like you too Shokuhou-san." He had no idea why his voice came out so steady, considering that inside his head he had gone into full blown panic mode. He had run into life or death situations with less panic than he was experiencing now.

Her determined look was gone, once again replaced by a smile. Beside the couple a group of girls who had obviously been listening in gave a small cheer. Shokuhou hugged him spontaneously and they cheered louder. Touma looked over at them with a slight blush in his cheeks and they giggled and began to walk away gossiping amongst themselves.

"I'm so happy Kamijou-chan." Shokuhou told him.

"Me too." He replied. "I had no idea you liked me." His brain was still trying to wrap around that idea. To think that this _beautiful_ girl liked him... he subtly pinched himself in case he was dreaming.

"I didn't realize you were so forward." Shokuhou said with a blush and a slightly indignant expression. Abruptly he realized he was still holding her and that it wasn't himself that he had pinched, it was her butt.

His face went red instantly. "Ah, no wait I didn't mean to do that-" He said panicked. Was his misfortune going to make him lose his girlfriend only seconds after she had confessed? He readied himself for some sort of violent outbreak from her.

She giggled instead. "That bad luck of yours again huh?" She rested her head against his chest. "Well I'm just going to have to get used to it if you're going to be my boyfriend."

He held her tighter against himself, noting how good she felt pressed up against him. "Sorry. I'll try to do better." He promised her. He had no intention of letting his misfortune ruin this for him.

"Don't try that hard." She mumbled into his chest so low he could barely hear it. "I didn't dislike it."

* x *

Tokiwadai middle school was just as affected by the changes around Academy City as everywhere else. The only difference was that the mistletoe were not a constant source of anxiety and awkward moments but merely part of the scenery. Tokiwadai was an all girl's school after all, so there was no danger of anybody running into their boyfriend or crush under one of them. Thus the girls were blissfully going about their everyday life, hardly even noticing the mistletoe.

Except for one particular girl that is.

Misaka Mikoto passed under a piece of mistletoe in a dead sprint, and as she ran she threw a bolt of electricity in front of her. She was rewarded for this effort half a second later when a figure appeared out of nowhere in the air in front of her. The figure in the air and the bolt of lightning hit each other, allowing Misaka to dodge it as it lost control of it's fall.

She looked at the body twitching around on the ground with an angry expression. "Kuroko!" She yelled and added another bolt of electricity just to dig the message through. "Stop that!" She demanded.

"Bu- but Onee-sama," Kuroko groaned. "Surely Christmas time would be the best time to consummate our love by kissing under the mistletoe?"

"We aren't in love!" Misaka insisted. "I have no intention of every dating you! I'm straight damnit!" She paused at the look of pain on Kuroko's face that had nothing to do with the lightning. Misaka didn't stop though, she valued Kuroko as a friend but it was high time that Kuroko stopped thinking that they would end up together and started looking for somebody else. "We are-!"

She stopped herself when she felt two hands place themselves on her shoulders. Strong hands. Strong and familiar hands. "Do you think this is appropriate behaviour Miss Misaka Mikoto?" A voice said from behind her. A voice all students in Tokiwadai know and fear. The voice of the Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor.

Misaka glanced around for help in her terror. There was nothing of course. Kuroko was still writhing on the ground and the crowd of onlookers that had been gathered during the fight were all avoiding her eyes. "N- no, it w- was just-" She stammered out.

"It is unacceptable of course." The Dorm Supervisor said in a dangerously low voice. "It is time for punishment now."

"No- no wait-" Misaka managed to get out. The next instant her neck had been snapped and she dropped to the floor with a thud. Her whole world went black.

When she woke up she was outside on a bench staring at the face of the Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor. "Am- am I in hell?" She asked as she rubbed her neck which was still in pain.

"Not yet." The Dorm Supervisor replied. Misaka winced at the 'yet'. Any other person in the world would hesitate to tell her anything like that, but the Dorm Supervisor feared her as much as she feared an ant. "You are to clean this park." The Dorm Supervisor told her with a glare. "As your punishment. When it is finished you may return to the dorm." She gestured to a couple of garbage bags and a trash stick and then walked away without another word.

Misaka didn't even bother to argue about how unfair it was. It would be curfew by the time she was finished but The Dorm Supervisor didn't have any mercy to spare. She was kind around kindergarteners but other than that she was cold and heartless.

With a sigh she decided to get to work, she wasn't one of those Tokiwadai students who were so rich and pampered that they were afraid of any hard work. She pulled open on of the garbage bags and began wandering around using the trash stick of pick up pieces of litter around the park. It was a small park, but rundown and Misaka doubted any cleaning bot had been here in a long time. She was able to make it slightly easier on herself by picking up the scattered cans with her power but for the most part it was covered in shopping bags.

The next half hour passed by very slowly for Misaka with nobody but herself for company and nothing to do but pick up litter. But just when she was about to despair of loneliness a saviour appeared.

"Misaka-san?" A voice asked from behind her as she bent over to maneuver her stick to grab a shopping bag that was stuck. She twirled around at the familiar voice to see Thor standing before her. She could feel her pulse quickening at the sight of him in this very private setting. She was very glad she was wearing her shorts under her skirt, otherwise he would have gotten quite a view.

She had met Thor through Touma during the Ichihanaransai and had been more than shocked to find another electricity user close to her strength. Touma had ran off for some reason or another and before she knew it she found herself challenging Thor to a duel. He had accepted immediately and they went to a secluded area to fight. She had lost that fight almost instantly when he sent lightning through the ground to hurt her, something that just wasn't physically possible. She had however learned her lesson about anything being possible for magic users and in the next fight she had taken the victory.

They continued on like that for a month, dueling often and had kept mostly an even score of wins or losses with the slight advantage for Misaka. During that time Misaka noticed something changing. Less and less often was Touma the first person that her mind jumped to whenever a romantic thought came up. She started finding flaws in him that she hadn't noticed before, and found herself less willing to forgive the ones she already knew about like the fact that he couldn't walk down a street without making another girl fall in love with him. At the same time she started to think about Thor more and more often. Before she knew it Thor had completely replaced Touma in her heart.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Actually I was looking for you." He told her "I was about to give up when I felt somebody manipulating a lot of metal here."

"You were looking for me? Why?" She asked. She really hoped he didn't notice that her face was getting redder as an explanation for why he would have sought her out in this secluded spot popped into her mind.

"I... Have some bad news." He told her delicately. "I was walking down the street earlier and I saw... I saw some girl with blond hair wearing your uniform confess to Touma. And he accepted."

She was surprised that it didn't hurt. Not at all. Just a month or two ago that news would have left her nearly in tears. She would've never spoken to Shokuhou again. Now she felt... nothing. Just calm. "Alright."

"...Alright? That's it?" Thor said, shocked. "Misaka I know you like him you don't need to hold back in front of me."

She shook her head and said firmly "No, I don't like him anymore. Actually how did you know I _did_ like him?" She had barely ever even talked about Touma in front of Thor.

"I saw what happened in the airport in Hawaii." He confessed.

Now she had a reaction. Her face turned completely red and she spluttered out "Th- that was then and this is now! I don't like him anymore okay!?" Sparks started to fly around her.

He took a step backwards unconsciously when she yelled. "Alright, alright I get it." He consoled her. Then he froze in his tracks and a strange look crossed his face, a look of very cautious hope. "Then Misaka... Who do you like?" He barely managed to croak out those last few words.

Misaka's entire body turned completely red as she saw her chance to finally confess to him. "I- I- I- I- I- I-" It was no good, Misaka had never been the sort of person who could calmly confess to someone. That had stopped any and all chance of a relationship with Touma dead in it's tracks. Touma would never be able to figure out she liked him without somebody shoving his face in it.

An awkward silence fell between them when she stopped stammering. She struggled to think of something to say, anything at all to break the silence. As she did she saw determination slowly build inside of Thor. "Misaka... I like you. Will you go out with me?" His face said that a no would've destroyed him.

If Misaka was having trouble speaking earlier now it was a hundred times worse. She opened her mouth and absolutely nothing came out, not even a stammer. In the final moment of panic she solved the problem by shaking her head up and down vigorously.

Thor looked at her like she had just given her the best news of his life. Misaka didn't know it but this was the first time he had ever even liked a girl let alone managed to work up the courage to ask one out. Now he couldn't find the words either and merely pulled Misaka into a hug.

Misaka's mind was still trying to process what had just happened. She had a _boyfriend_. _Thor_ was her _boyfriend_. She could've kissed Shokuhou for inadvertently setting this up. Finally she struggled to get some words out. "Tomorrow. Do you want to go to the movies tomorrow?" She asked him.

Suddenly his body froze against hers. "Actually... I'm sort of leaving tomorrow. For a bit." He said sheepishly. "I was so excited to ask you out I completely forgot about it."

"When do you come back? We'll have our first date then."

He mumbled something so quietly she couldn't hear it.

"Huh?"

"...Christmas." He said awkwardly.

She shared in his tension. Their first date was going to be on Christmas? "Alright then." She surprised herself by saying. "Then wait for my outside the Tokiwadai dorms at 6:00 okay?"

"Alright. Got it." Was all he said.

After she had finished cleaning up the park with Thor's help she walked home, waving him goodbye. She was in incredibly high spirits. Along the way she saw an advertisement that made her pause. It was showing an incredibly cute female Santa costume. It gave her an idea. She couldn't get it herself of course, having it mailed to her room would throw Kuroko in a frenzy, and she didn't want to ask something that embarrassing of Kongou. No the best person to ask would be Shokuhou. She was apparently dating Touma now after all so she probably wanted something like that for herself anyways.

* x *

Now at last it is time to return to where we left off at the start of our story. On Christmas day, the most magical day of the year two couples were just about to begin their dates. While for one of these couples today was to be their first date because of a separation, the other couple had had no such problem and had spent the last week almost entirely with each other.

Shokuhou Misaki pushed Misaka out the door with a smile. This prank had been completely worth the extra cost of the costume, and besides she imagined Misaka's date would like this costume far more than the childish one that Misaka had asked her to collect.

With a smile Misaki pushed Misaka out of her mind and sat on her desk in front of a mirror. Now she had her own date to prepare for, and she set about lightly applying makeup on herself with a smile. The last week had been one of the best of her life. She and Touma had done almost everything together, both still caught up in the bliss of new love. He had taken her ice skating, to the movies, to dinners, and a dozen other things. They had spent whole days together. Of course he didn't know it but she had been using her influence to get discounts at the places he took her to, he always insisted on paying and she knew how quickly his wallet would have run out if she didn't. She also knew that if she started to pay for everything it would make him very awkward. She wouldn't have cared of course but it was cute that he wanted to pay for her.

Time flew by in her preparation as she thought back to the deliciously soft kiss they had shared three days ago. And then thought about the couple of much harder kisses they had shared two days ago. And then thought about the way he had held her against himself as tight as he could yesterday, as the two of them had shared far more kisses than she could count until she completely lost track of time. Things had been moving along quite nicely in her books. Of course it would be considered scandalous for any other young rich lady to behave as she did but a side effect of using her power so much was a complete disregard for what society thought was 'acceptable'. If anybody spoke out against her all she had to do was change their mind with her power.

Before she knew it there was a knock at her door and Touma's voice called out "Misaki?" She had convinced him yesterday to start using her name.

She rushed into the bathroom taking care to make sure he didn't hear her slip into the other room. "Come in!" She called "I'll be out in a second!" She was ready now of course but for this to have the best effect she wanted to make an entrance.

She heard the door open and he yelled "Alright!" And stepped inside. She listened closely at the door, heard him wandering around her room looking around. She was glad she had had her roommate clean the place before he showed up.

She listened and listened but he didn't sit down. Growing impatient she yelled "Sit down on my bed I'll be out in a minute!"

"Okay!" He called back and finally sat down.

Misaki made a few last minute adjustments to her costume in the mirror and stepped out the door. She walked towards him in a swaying movement she had been practicing, drawing his eyes towards her breasts and hips. She smiled wickedly at the sight of him openly gaping at her in wonder. She didn't need her power to guess what he was thinking. It felt good to know the man you loved thought you were attractive. _Very_ attractive judging by his blush.

She cleared the distance to him before he could recover enough from the shock to stand and sat down on his lap. That produced an even larger blush as her half-covered chest came to the same level as his eyes. For her part she enjoyed the feel of his strong body against hers, and she idly ran one of her hands up and down the strong muscles on his arm.

"Mi-misaki!" He spluttered. She almost laughed at how cute his face looked while he blushed like that. He was looking her dead in the eyes and she knew that he was struggling not to run his eyes over her body. She wouldn't have minded if he did of course, that was why she had put the costume on, but it was nice of him to make the attempt.

"Touma~" She practically purred as she pulled his head up and kissed him full on the lips. She pulled back and began to speak again but before she could he grabbed her head and pulled her down for another one. She meant to pretend to resist for effect, but she found herself enjoying it so much she couldn't think of anything else.

When he finally released her lips he said her name in that slow way that she loved and then looked her up and down with obvious passion in his eyes. "You're so beautiful." He told her. All traces of a blush were gone.

"I love you." She found herself blurting out. "I love everything about you."

He smiled at her and said "I love you too." He kissed her softly on the lips and she giggled despite herself.

"What do you love about me?" She asked him.

"I love that you're honest and straight forward with your feelings, I love your playful personality, I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, and I wish I could spend every moment of my life with you." He replied, a slight blush once again crept onto his face but his voice didn't waver at all.

She kissed him passionately in response. "Thank you." She told him wholeheartedly. "Here's your reward." She found herself saying. Before she could even think about what she was doing she had stepped off of his lap and had skipped over to the closet.

When she got to the closet she stopped herself, struggling to regain control. She had planned on keeping these a secret, bringing them out only on special occasions. She turned around trying to think up an excuse when she saw him just looking at her. With a blush she realized that her skipping had given him a good sight of her panties because of the tiny puffed out skirt on her costume. The way he was looking at her made her continue what she was doing. It wasn't fair! She was the one who manipulated other people's minds, she didn't start changing her plans just to make some guy happy!

"Take a look~" She said and pulled the closet door open. With a smile she pulled a tiny maid costume and held it up against herself to show him. Then she threw that down and showed him a bunny one, a sexy nurse costume, a devil costume, and most embarrassingly of all she showed him a black cat costume that was merely a fuzzy bikini complete with cat ears. She would die before she wore that one. She cursed that website that she had went to for the Santa costumes. She had just needed one more costume to get free shipping (even rich girls like herself like deals) and before she knew it that had skyrocketed to getting all of these. "For our next date I'll wear whichever of these you want~" She said and struck a cute pose.

At least he had the decency to blush as hard as she was. It was time for her to take control of the situation again. She walked over to him and dropped herself onto his lap again and said "And... another thing." She cursed herself for the awkwardness of that. She had planned on using the 'Here's your reward' line on this but it would just be awkward to say it twice. She kissed him again to cover up the slip. "Six winged angel of love!" She called to the door.

On cue the door opened and three girls walked in in a trance. They had been mind controlled by Misaki for this moment. She had chosen them because all three of them were stunningly beautiful. The three of them saw Kamijou and smiled. Then together they reached down to their skirts and lifted them up.

Touma jumped and she grabbed onto him to avoid falling out of his lap. He had averted his eyes from the girls. She giggled and pushed his head over to face them. "Do you like them?" She asked.

"I- I-"

"Six winged angel of release." She said firmly. As one the girls dropped their skirts and left the room. When they got back to their rooms they would return to themselves and not realize anything had happened. They were members of her clique and she knew that their Christmas plans wouldn't be starting for a bit so nobody would notice them missing.

"What... what was that?" He asked hesitantly.

"Did you like it?" She asked. "I've got them set up to show you their panties every time you or me says 'Six winged angel of love' so go ahead and take advantage of that if you see them again."

"I... I wouldn't do that." He told her.

"Don't worry." She told him. "I'm fine with it so how about I use my power to turn this whole school into your own personal harem? Aside from Misaka-san I can make everybody here jump to follow your e-ver-y order." She said in slowest and sultriest voiced she manage. He looked at her like he wasn't sure if she was joking or not, which made her happy. She prided herself on her ability to make anything she said seem like it could be taken either as a joke or seriously.

"I don't want anybody but you. I love you too much for that." He told her.

That made her happier inside than she thought was proportionate for such a small comment. His quick response was something she loved about him. She could joke around like this as much as she wanted, and he would never be tempted. Well he might be tempted, but she knew that he would never seriously decide to ask her to do something like that.

"Joking~" She told him. "Don't worry they were volunteers, although I erased the memory of volunteering from them to make things not awkward." _That _had been an awkward conversation. Even for her, asking three girls to agree to show their panties to her boyfriend as part of a joke had been weird. She had erased their memories to make it less awkward for _her_ not for him. It was worth it for the look on his face though.

With a relieved laugh he grabbed her face and kissed her again. And again. And again. And again. Soon he was pulling down her costume and she was getting rid of that annoying shirt of his.

* x *

Of course this isn't the end of our story. We still have one more couple to follow on this Christmas tale. So now let's wind the clock back again this time to right where we left off at the start of our story.

Misaka Mikoto ran directly into Thor and barely managed to keep herself steady enough to avoid falling onto the ground. Thor fared worse than she did, considering he had been standing still and she had just ran into him at full speed. He hit the ground with a grimace.

"Sorry!" Misaka said and pulled him to his feet. In truth though she was glad for the momentary distraction to allow herself to process what she was feeling. The joy at seeing Thor again was facing off with the nervousness of having her first ever date on Christmas, and the whole thing was amplified ten times by the thought of the costume she was wearing under the coat she had just stolen. She was going to _kill_ Shokuhou for that. The one she had chosen was very cute and she wouldn't have minded showing it to Thor at all, but _this_ was far too much.

"Misaka-san." He said as he idly dusted himself off. "It's so good to see you. I almost missed your message about the rescheduling."

Misaka decided not to tell him that Shokuhou had been the one to do that. Then she might have to explain what she was doing with Shokuhou and she didn't trust herself to think of a good lie while she was so panicked. "Ah.. don't worry about it. I shouldn't have rescheduled."

"And what was with that 'if I'm not there exactly on time it means I don't want to go' thing?"

"Nothing!" She yelled. "It was nothing okay!?"

"Alright, alright." Thor conceded. "Shall we get going then?" He asked. The date had been made on very short notice so in lieu of finding a restaurant or a theater to go to the two of them were planning on walking down to see the big Academy City Christmas Tree. It was supposed to be the crowning achievement of all the Christmas decorations all across town. It was set up by the windowless building and the entire thing was covered in some sort of mirror trick by a few powerful espers 24/7. Today at 5:00 was supposed to be the big unveiling. The original plan for the date had been to leave later and see it after the crowds had died down but she supposed that seeing it be unveiled would be rather romantic.

With a nod she started to walk in the direction of the tree and as she did Thor raised his arm and she unconsciously took a step to the side to avoid getting hit. Then when she stepped back and noticed him looking a little surprised and disappointed she realized what had just happened. He had tried to hold her hand and she had turned him down without even realizing it! And now of course it would be far too awkward to reach out and grab his. The date was already off to a bad start. Well it had already been off to a bad start as soon as she decided to trust Shokuhou but that wasn't the point.

With a panicked thought she stepped closer to him and grabbed onto his arm, holding it and walking with him like a lover. The look on his face changed from surprised and disappointed to surprised and pleased. She became very pleased with herself very quickly. She had managed to make it look like this had been her original intention and that was why she had declined holding his hand. Not to mention the fact that she didn't dislike holding onto him like this.

"How have you been Misaka?" Thor asked her.

"Great I..."

They talked to each other like a couple that had been together for months, having the perfect combination of things in common and things not in common. Thor told her about life as a magician and Misaka did her best to get him to get him to understand what life was like for an esper in Academy City. They talked about childish tastes they both shared, the duels they had fought, and for the first time in years Misaka was able to talk to somebody about controlling electricity who understood it as well as she did. She had long since surpassed all of her fellow espers and having somebody else be on the same level as her so that they could share ideas satisfied some need she hadn't really realized existed until now.

The time drifted by as they unhurriedly made their way down to the Christmas tree. Snow fell through the air, controlled by espers to give out small quantities of large clumps of snow that fell slowly across the street like in animated Christmas movies. They passed every kind of Christmas decoration imaginable and it was clear that the stores had decided to try and top the decorations of the rest of the city. The two of them saw Christmas trees real and fake both covered in so many decorations it was sometimes impossible to see the tree. They saw Christmas lights shining and flashing, prop reindeer that seemed like they could come alive, Santa actors handing out candies with great laughs of 'Ho Ho Ho', and once even a Santa actually being pulled in a sled by real live reindeer with several children in the back that looked like they thought they were in heaven. Snowmen of every size and shape were everywhere. They passed other couples walking together like they were and for once Misaka didn't look at them with a mix of embarrassment and jealousy, having nothing to be jealous about anymore. She even found herself letting out a sound of disappointment as they took a right turn right before they would have passed under a mistletoe.

She was so caught up in the moment that when her doom appeared from thin air in front of her talking on it's phone she didn't even notice it until she had already walked down a block in the same direction. When she did it was like waking up from a dream. She stopped dead in her tracks and forcibly stopped Thor from continuing. "What is it Misaka?" He asked.

Misaka almost winced at the use of her name. "Run." She whispered at him but it was too late. In front of the couple Kuroko turned around and Misaka saw a light of recognition fill her eyes. Followed by a light of shock, which was again followed by one of outrage.

"Onee-sama!?" Kuroko yelled out as her eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them in disbelief.

"Run!" Misaka yelled this time. On instinct she created a field of lightning all around her, being careful to avoid hitting any people, and concentrating to achieve a special goal. As one all of the snowmen in the area exploded into a fine powder of snow that completely covered the area. Misaka didn't waste time, she grabbed Thor's arm at the two of them ran off towards a nearby door in an alley. The sound of people's surprised screams covered the sound of their footsteps. Kuroko teleported away with a snarl, obviously trying to find the two of them. When they reached it Misaka's powers quickly opened the door and the two of them entered into the room just as the snow started to blow away.

Thor gave off a heavy sigh of relief but before Misaka could even begin to feel relieved she saw something that shocked her far more than the sight of Kuroko. On the other end of the room, a room that appeared to be a storage space, Misaka saw Accelerator the man who had killed 10,000 of her clones that she thought of as her sisters. That on it's own wasn't what shocked her of course, no what shocked her was who his companion was. Misaka WORST her clone which looked like a high school version of her was standing right beside him, with their arms wrapped around each other. Her red lipstick all over Accelerator's lips was evidence of enough of the activity they had been engaged in before they two of them entered.

"What was that about Misaka?" Thor asked her. "Wasn't that your roommate?" Misaka wasn't listening though, she was far too busy staring in shock.

"Ah, Onee-tama." WORST said. Unlike Accelerator her face was completely devoid of embarrassment. "Did you come into here to have a private moment with your boyfriend? Don't let Misaka get in your way, go ahead and live through your perverted fantasies in front of her." She was wearing a red tank top that was two sizes too small for her, a ridiculously tight pair of jeans, and a Santa hat that was about to fall off.

Misaka turned completely red and yelled out "Forget that! What the hell are you doing to my sister!?"

"Sister?" Thor asked. "You mean she's one of your clones?" Misaka nodded at him in answer.

WORST suddenly got a glimmer in her eyes and yelled out "Please help Misaka, Onee-tama! Misaka was merely walking down the street when this molester pulled her into this room and attacked her! Please save Misaka!"

Sparks started to fly out from Misaka's head as she imagined Accelerator taking advantage of one of her sisters after promising to repay his debt to them. "I'll kill you!" She shouted. Beside her Thor had taken a step back, planning on staying out of this until he could figure out what exactly was going on, and trusting Misaka to be able to take care of herself.

"Don't suddenly act all innocent! You pushed _me_ in here!" Accelerator yelled indignantly. He tried to take a step away from WORST but with a loud clink he was stopped. He looked down to see a pair of handcuffs which connected his wrist and a iron bar that was on the wall. "When the hell did you handcuff me!?"

"It's not Misaka's fault that you get so distracted while she's kissing you." WORST replied with a smile. To prove her point she kissed him again and sure enough Accelerator seemed to forget Misaka and Thor were there. "Ah, no Misaka means she was trying to hold you down so she could run away." WORST said in Misaka's direction.

It was too late though, Misaka's anger had deflated and now she was merely staring at the two of them in disbelief. "You're dating my sister?" Was all she could get out. It was impossible to believe. Just half a year ago her sisters were being killed by Accelerator left right and center and now he was _dating_ one of them?

"Don't misunderstand Onee-tama." WORST said abandoning her attempt to get Accelerator to fight. For the first time a hint of a blush had come into her face as she said "Misaka isn't dating him. We just do stuff like this sometimes."

Misaka wasn't sure if that made it worse or better. They weren't dating but they were still sneaking into abandoned rooms together? "Huh?" Was all she could say.

"So you're... friends with benefits?" Thor asked. "Haven't you ever seen a romantic movie? That never ends well."

"I didn't ask your permission." Accelerator said with a glare for Thor. "It's none of your damn business what I do."

"Tou-san, are you fighting to keep Misaka by your side?" WORST asked with a mocking smile. "Misaka doesn't dislike jealous guys."

"Shut up." Was Accelerator's only reply. Then he reached up to his collar with his free hand and turned on his esper powers. Misaka tensed but all he did was break off his handcuffs and grab WORST for another kiss. Within seconds it was clear that the two of them had completely forgotten the two of them were there.

"Should we leave?" Thor asked. Misaka nodded immediately. She supposed she didn't have any right to tell her sister what to do but that didn't mean she wanted to be in the same room as her while she did it. Besides Kuroko should be gone by now.

The two of them exited the room in a hurry, and then sneaked through the streets on their way to the Christmas tree. When she was sure they had gotten away from Kuroko Misaka told Thor about her, and why they had had to run away, emphasizing that she was as straight as an arrow and had no intention of ever ending getting together with Kuroko.

Misaka grabbed onto his arm again and the two of them walked the rest of the way talking about light things. It was awkward for a moment after what had just happened but soon the two of them were back in their own little world, watching the Christmas decorations and sharing each others warmth.

Misaka wasn't sure exactly when they reached the windowless building but before she knew it the two of them were there, standing in with the rest of the crowd of lovers and young children all gathered around to see the unveiling of the biggest Chistmas tree in the city. Misaka didn't mind being pressed so close against Thor in the slightest.

When the tree was revealed it was so beautiful everybody could do nothing but stand and watch. The unveiling came without warning, the field of invisibility dropping slowly from the top, and drawing in everybody's eyes. The tree was easily taller than the windowless building itself, and must have been decorated by a dozen top class artists over the course of a year. Ornaments of silver and gold and red and blue and every colour imaginable filled the tree, mixing and matching until it almost seemed like they were alive. Tinsel wrapped around the tree in layers looking almost like it was real ice, and with a start Misaka realized it was. Instead of simply buying tinsel they had paid espers to create some of their own made from real ice, something that could only be done in Academy City. The lights around the tree glowed so brightly that regardless of how small they were on the huge tree Misaka could see them, and she wasn't even sure how that was possible. The star on the top of the tree wasn't a decoration but an actual floating light that was resting on top of the tree.

Misaka wasn't sure if she started kissing Thor or he started kissing her but however it started it was happening now, long and sweet and so good she didn't even remember it was her first kiss until it was over.

It was night time when they got back to the Tokiwadai dorms and Misaka had had one of the greatest nights of her life. Thor beside her was feeling the exact same thing, and he walked with her all the way to her dorm room before he finally reluctantly detached himself from her and turned to go.

Misaka was almost drunk on bliss. She felt like she could do anything. "Wait!" She called out to him and he turned around with a questioning look. Then with a smile Misaka dropped her coat to the floor and his eyes opened up with surprise and pure pleasure at the sight of her Santa costume. She ran forward to kiss him for what felt like the thousandth time that night and before he could recover she turned around and disappeared into her bedroom.

She crawled under her covers to the sound of Kuroko snoring, not even bothering to remove the costume, and fell asleep with her dreams full of Thor.

And so Christmas came to an end and our two couples had become closer than they had ever imagined possible. By the time Christmas rolled around next year the couples would be so intertwined that nobody could even imagine a time when they had been apart.

* * *

**Author's Note Continued:** So that's the story. I hope you enjoyed it! I focused more on the physical side of a relationship with Touma and Misaki, and the emotional side with Misaka and Thor, but I still tried to give each of them some of both.

Please leave a review!


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